August 05, 2010

Those of us engaged in actively encouraging the emergence of a new mindset, which sees the unity of all life and encourages humanity to live in balance with the natural world, often write about the importance of “being connected to Mother Earth.” It’s a positive and noble goal but, until personally experienced, can just be another set of empty words describing a lofty sentiment.

I never expected my true appreciation of this concept to occur within the sterile confines of the concrete jungle known as the Shanghai 2010 Expo in China, but it did. There, under the traditional thatch of a Samoan fale and within the bright blue warehouse structure called the South Pacific Pavilion, I watched a contemporary and very brave woman participate in an ancient, indigenous ritual that connected her experientially and personally to Mother Earth in a way that provided a glimpse into the very meaning and mystery of being alive.

Last week I was privileged to join a team from the Samoan Tourism Authority and Government of Samoa who were attending the Expo and celebrating Samoa’s National Day on August 1st. A dear friend, Zita Sefo-Martel, celebrated fautasi (longboat) skipper, High Consul to France, owner of Polynesian Xplorer, and devoted mother of four young boys, had agreed to receive her malu (tattoo) in public from the celebrated master tattooist, Tufuga Ta Tatau Su’a Sulu’ape Petelo.

In western cultures, a body tattoo is an object of adornment; in Samoa it is a sacred covenant between the bearer and the earth and community that support him or her.

Zita has described the meaning of the event in her own words:

The generic word for tattoo in Samoan is tatau. The Pe-a (tattoo for men) or malu (tattoo for women) is not only an eloquent form of living art and a record of ancient navigation and traditional culture, it is also a Samoan's spiritual connection to Mother Earth through the physical pain and sacrifice experienced in the act of being tattooed.

The symbolism depicted on a tatau or malu represents the sacred covenant between a Samoan and his or her way of life. It is “O Mea Sina”. It is sacred.

The word malu means protect, shelter, security. Malu also means house. The woman is therefore seen in Samoan culture as the protector of the children, the family, and the village. She is the giver of bloodlines.

The symbols of the malu etched on the woman reflect the many roles of the woman in Samoan society. The malu is applied starting from the knees and working up to and finishing at the top of the thighs.

Now let me explain what that act of sacrifice actually entailed. For four hours, Zita lay on a mat above a hardwood floor, while three skilled men worked expertly to adorn her thighs, upper legs and knees with a range of traditional symbols representing Zita’s environment, family connections and love of the ocean. That’s one way of describing it. Another is to say that for four hours she endured torture as the sharp teeth of the various instruments etched her skin, muscle, sinew and bone to leave this indelible testimony.

As illustrated in the first video, receiving a malu was, as with all things Samoan, a community affair. Zita was never left alone; initially accompanied by another tattoo recipient – Roger Warren, an internationally recognized Rugby player, who was receiving the male tattoo; and a respected elder Lei Lua and various Samoan musicians and performers who soothed her passage with gentle Samoan songs and chants. In the afternoon, the Prime Minister of Samoa and his wife plus the Chinese official delegation and media came by and the act was viewed by hundreds of the curious and somewhat perplexed Chinese visitors that streamed past the fale.

At no point did this event descend into a marketing spectacle – that fale was and felt like a sacred space, a setting for a rite of passage that was also a statement of profound connection linking all Samoans’ present to their homeland and extending an act of selfless welcome to their visitors.

After four, painful hours, the work was complete and Zita’s bare legs had been transformed into a work of art that will permanently broadcast her unique identity and relationship to Mother Earth in a way that will evoke curiosity and respect in all who meet her – a living lesson; etched in flesh that gives a whole new meaning to the statement “be the change you wish to see in the world.”

After a quiet period of rest and reflection, a ceremony of blessing - the "Samaga o le Malu" could commence, starting with a prayer of thanks and song. The Tafuga Ta Tatau (master tattooist) Sulu’ape Petelo murmered a prayer, while cracking an egg on Zita's head symbolising her rebirth into a new woman of the earth. Then a lotion of lega-tumeric mixed with coconut oil was applied to Zita's body starting with the Malu. Finally, it was Zita's turn to celebrate her passage and proudly reveal her Malu to her admiring community in dance as shared in the following video.

Zita Martel designed her malu in collaboration with the tattooist and in accordance with Samoan tradition. As a Tautai (skipper) of Samoan fautasi (longboats) some of the symbols depict Zita’s life, her personal journey as a Tautai and the gift of being able to feel at one with the ocean waves, the winds, the crew and the fautasi.

Zita Sefo-Martel is one of many individuals who act as “agents of change” by living a different set of values to those that have dominated the prevailing industrial culture of the past 150 plus years. She acts as a bridge between an ancient indigenous culture (in this case Polynesian) and a contemporary western culture now engaged in a search for meaning and balance.

I thank the Samoan government, its people and Zita Martel herself for the opportunity to share a week with the Samoan team at the Expo in Shanghai and witness this remarkable event. By the way, this tiny nation provides the perfect destination setting - just look at this video to see why Samoa shouldn't be missed!

December 17, 2009

When H.R.H Prince Charles first started to speak about environmental issues over 30 years ago, many wrote him off as a crank. Thank God his upbringing developed a thick skin and he remained alive, curious and focused. One of his early advisors is another hero of mine - Laurens Van Der Post who spent years living with the bushmen of the Kalahari and wrote a classic on the subject. He also wrote the best biography of Carl Jung so it's not surprising that Charles has developed in such a balanced manner. Perhaps his time at bleak Gordonstone developed the thick skin, stubbornness and indefatigability, but it was time spent in his beloved garden with people like Van der Post and Jonathan Porritt who nurtured the immense wisdom of this man.

He is one of the most committed "agents of change" our nation has. He has used his position to listen intently; to build relationships with people of all cultures, backgrounds, and incomes and to deploy his royal wit and influence to get things done. Thank goodness that his mother is so dedicated and vigorous because he can be so much more effective as an "agent of change`" than as a King.

There will be thousands of words spoken now that the great and the good have arrived in Copenhagen but these sentiments expressed in this speech are likely backed by the most integrity and consistency. He may be a Prince, but I genuinely believe that he cares deeply for the the wealth of the commons - that's you and me. So if you have little appetite for more talk, take a few minutes out and view the following or read the transcript:

After watching hours of coverage from Copenhagen over the last few days, I am convinced that we will get nowhere so long as we persist with an obsolete world view that sees me as separate from you; me as separate from and better than the rest of life. Dividing lines - of whatever kind - have to be blurred. As stated here, we don't need barricades; nor do we need guilt inducing prods to make us jump from from one mountain of thought, across the chasm of unknowing, to another. What we need are bridges of compassion. In deference to my Prince, I am British after all, I'll let him have the last few words:

This is not a problem resolvable in terms of “them and us.”
For when it comes to the air we breathe and the water we drink, there are no national
boundaries. We all depend on each other – and, crucially, on each other’s actions - for
our weather, our food, our water and our energy......

...As our planet’s life-support system begins to fail and our verysurvival as a species is brought into question, remember that our children and grandchildren will ask not what our generation said, but what it did.

December 14, 2009

Regardless of the outcome at the COP 15 Summit, what I see happening there gives me enormous hope for the future:

I see thousands of people of all ages ( and many once strangers to one another) actively engaged in communication, collaboration, spontaneous acts of sharing and generosity and focusing on issues that affect the whole.

Every form of social media is being fully deployed to enable many-to-many conversations that only result in a greater appreciation for and tolerance of complexity, diversity and ambiguity so necessary if we are to make our way forward.

I see individuals taking responsibility for their own actions, caring for their communities; striving to find a better way; questioning and not just following trends or authorities because it’s the easier path; and

I see incontrovertible evidence that people are not just seeking to solve a problem but to find meaning and purpose in their lives.

Stephen draws our attention to Victor Frankl – a childhood hero of mine – who has shaped a life of thinking and I’ll quote Stephen’s introduction to his post and include the video because it is so uplifting.

Why do we do it? I mean our work. In 1942, Viktor Frankl stood naked and completely alone in the world in a concentration camp. His captors planned to execute him – he was sure of it. They had taken everything he had in the world away. All those he loved and cared for had either been already murdered or would meet that fate soon. Those around him were in various states of psychological collapse and were resigned to their fate.

And yet amongst all this horror – Frankle discovered something else – an earth shaking idea as potentially trans formative as the discovery of fire. He realized that the only thing we really have control over in our life….. is the meaning we create from it. Frankle describes the search for meaning as our ultimate quest.

Stephen concludes: We are the meaning makers – whether we wish to accept the responsibility or not. In other words nothing has any meaning until we create it and our children are crying out for meaning. We must help them find one and a meaning that enables them to aspire toward the highest potential of humanity.

Copenhagen isn’t just about climate change and geopolitics. It's not even about GDP, growth, targets. It's about mankind's search for meaning. Why are we here? - to lead lives that are prosperous but meaningless or lives that are nasty, brutish and short where the search for meaning is a luxury? It’s also an event that is showing on our TV screens, in our Facebook pages, on our Twitter and Flickr streams just how interconnected we are; how humanity is converging into one community.It’s a mirror that’s illustrating the deep and exciting evolutionary spurt that’s occurring in humankind; and it’s an important milestone (not an end in itself). That's why I am more inspired today than a week ago..

December 12, 2009

History has a habit of pushing to the forefront ordinary individuals who resonate the passions, concerns and perspective of the age and play key leadership, change agent roles.

Franny Armstrong is such a person – an independent film maker who has done more to educate the general public than anyone, with the probable exception of Al Gore (but remember, Franny didn’t have the base of being nearly president of the USA or skill in Powerpoint to start with!)

About five years ago, Franny (already recognized for making documentaries McLibel and Drowned Out ) decided that she could use her film making skills to create a video that would inform, move and even entertain people about the complex topic of climate change.

Her next decision was one of the wisest – chose another gutsy but even less experienced individual – who knew nothing about the subject or film making – to produce it. Enter stage right: Lizzy Gillette.

Not only did these two remarkable young women make a compelling film, The Age of Stupid, that has been translated into 34 languages, seen by millions , used by the UK and EU governments to educate politicians and staff alike, used by the UK's National Health Service to educate its 125,000+ employees, and garnered huge press coverage, but broke new ground in film funding and distribution:

Over £885,000 has been raised this far through crowdsourcing;

A new form of film distribution has been developed and tested – Indie Screening - which enables anyone to rent the film and show it to an audience for whatever fee they consider appropriate;

The film has raised the bar on “Green Film” premieres and used web links to follow the premieres with global input and participation.

A documentary about the making of the film is almost as inspiring and compelling as the film, Age of Stupid, itself and will explain why these two dynamic women get my vote as Change Agents of The Year. Do watch it – available here. But if you want to see a Change Agent in action watch all or part of this 6 minute interview:

Franny and Lizzie would be the first to say that it has been a magnificent team effort – not only did 662 people buy shares in a film when the risks were high, but a huge global team (over a 1000 people) has accumulated to move its agenda forward.

While I will admit that I don't like the film's title or the often judgmental, finger pointing nature of some of the dialogue, I cannot fault the makers' integrity and sincerity. better still, they've kept the issue forefront in the public's consciousness.

It doesn't matter what your views might be on climate change. The commitment, ingenuity and determination of these two women to make a better world are what give me hope in the future and that’s what we all need. Thankyou Franny and Lizzie and TEAM for not being stupid and not allowing he rest of us to be stupid either!!!

During the COP Talks, the Age of Stupid Team have been boradcasting a one hour show from Copenhagen - see below:

November 16, 2009

It took a monster to destroy one of the world's richest wetlands and a hero - a true agent of change - to attempt to restore it. Dr. Azzam Alwash, an Iraqi-American engineer is dedicating his life to regenerating a wasteland. It's a complex and vast undertaking - as outlined in this 60 Minutes program a few days ago. Dr Alwash has created Nature Iraq to continue his work. Where water has returned both wildlife and indigenous cultures have returned, but now they face another threat - drought, associated with climate change. I wonder how the west would be perceived by the people of the Middle East if we collaborated to restore this ecosystem. Money is being spent here but it is a fraction of the cost of either war or corruption...

November 06, 2009

Here’s 27 of the most lucid commentary on climate change you’ll hear anywhere and it is tailored to a Canadian audience.

Sir Nicholas Stern has been a powerful agent of change. He was one of the first establishment figures to dare to cite market failure as the cause of the problem; and now he is rightly explaining why the developing world has to shoulder responsibility for solving it. Here's the link. A summary follows

Addressing Climate Change will enable us to addresses Global Poverty He makes the linkage between climate change and world poverty stating that the two issues represent humanity’s greatest threat. Failure to manage climate change will worsen poverty but if we try to manage the environmental problem by blocking growth we’ll never get the coalition we need. He sees the transition to low carbon economies as offering the best opportunity for economic growth available today and the recession as the best time for making the investments necessary.

Taxation PolicyPutting a price on carbon will not be enough, however. Where governments raise more money from taxation (eg British Columbia’s carbon taxes), going “revenue neutral” is to miss the opportunity to hasten a transition that can only generate more prosperity and security for a community in the longer run. (Note in the UK our enlightened government is using the extra revenue from Air Passenger Duty to continue to bail out the banks! - my comment, not Stern's)

The Scale of the ChallengeFinally, here’s someone able to explain the scale of the problem in a language that makes sense. Instead of percentages, he talks real numbers. Today’s reality is that we generate 50 gigatons of greenhouse gases (GHGs) each year. To avoid catastrophe we have to reduce that to 20 gigatons, equivalent to a global average of 2 tonnes per person. Bear in mind that the rich countries like Canada are averaging 20 tonnes per person and you can see the challenge.

But Stern also points out that the low carbon future can be so much better than the one we have now. The act of getting from here to there can generate jobs and profit but it will take leadership and political will…

Country ReputationsFinally, Stern has a stark warning for Canada, a country, he believes could be leading the way on international development, forestry, car technology and renewable energy. But if Canada continues to plead for special favours – suggesting the transtion can’t be done, or it will cost too much and suggest that developing countries should do more, then, as one of the world’s richest nations it will lose trade, credibility, prestige and reputation and its politicians will be perceived as failing the electorate.

August 29, 2009

You can read the business and academic literature all you want but to learn how to change the world in 2009, you’d be well advised to listen to two contemporary change agents: Seth Godin and Chris Brogan. Both understand how the rules of engagement and leadership have changed as a result of connectivity.

Seth started life as a marketer. In his current incarnation, he acts as interpreter and popularizer of modern culture with a gift of the gab and a knack for attention grabbing titles. He has recognized that the art of persuading people to buy a product is remarkably similar to persuading them to follow you. In both cases, the task is not so much about selling but in enabling people to do what they yearned to do – achieve a personal goal and feel a part of something bigger than their individual selves. Seth’s most recent book is Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us.

Chris Brogan describes himself as a ten year “veteran” of using social media and both web and mobile technologies to build digital relationships for businesses, organizations, and individuals. Brogan learned the art of leading by accident when he started Podcamp – an event designed to help others learn about how to use social media. Podcamp spread as a concept and now operates in 90 countries. Brogan recently published Trust Agents: Using the Web to Build Influence, Improve Reputation and Earn Trustthat, partly thanks to his own tribe, just entered the New York best sellers list. FastCompany are publishing excerpts here.

The writing style used in both books is so similar I wonder if they shared a similar editor/ghost writer. For those of you with long journeys ahead, they are good reads but the contents of their combined 400+ pages can be summarized thus:

Find and focus on a Cause – let's face it, there’s no shortage. Brogan calls this “be the priest or build the church’. In other words find a group of passionate believers and or something worth changing or building and use the web to create and strengthen relationships around a common purpose. Most leaders start out as heretics – challenging the status quo and only later become heroes. To quote Godin: So three questions I'd offer you. The first one is, who exactly are you upsetting? Because if you're not upsetting anyone, you're not changing the status quo. The second question is, who are you connecting? Because for a lot of people, that's what they're in it for. The connections that are being made, one to the other. And the third one is, who are you leading? Because focusing on that part of it, not the mechanics of what you're building, but the who, and the leading part is where change comes.

Sustain curiosity – in the cause, yes, but, more importantly, in the followers. As Brogan says – “make it about them.” Constantly focus attention on the followers. In Brogan’s words, they are the rockstars. In William Gibson’s words “intelligence is distributed”. The genius emerges from the group but is supplied one bright idea at a time from an individual. It pays to identify and resonate with their autobiographical filters. Successful movements have coherence – their members’ mindsets are in alignment.

Connect –Godin argues that what people want more than anything is to be missed on the day they don’t show up. He's just created an exclusive online community for those who signed up first. Brogan identifies that there’s something huge about belonging, being on the inside and having exclusive access. Sadly, while exclusivity may be the force that binds, it's also the force that separates and look how that works when issues as complex as health care are up for debate.

Charisma – Godin suggests that charisma comes from leading. The quality and power of charisma to attract more followers emerges as individuals exercise leadership – simply because most of us want to be led. The celebrated psychologist Erich Fromm in the 50s also identified that few of us want to exercise responsibility either so a charismatic leader provides two services for the price of one!

Simplicity – Brogan identifies the importance of keeping the message and the platform as simple as possible and I would add as actionable as you can. People want something to do – as well as to believe in.

Commitment – don’t be deflected. Leading change takes time, patience and persistence but remember that you don’t need everyone. Quality of commitment is better than quantity and a 1000 committed, passionate followers or fans might be sufficient. It was the “few” that won Britain’s air battle in the last war; resistance fighters numbered in the thousands not millions and paved the way for a continent's liberation.

What’s your cause?

Who will you lead?

Are there other qualities we’ve missed here

Who are your heroes and which agents of change have inspired you?

In subsequent blogs, I'll highlight more contemporary agents of change.In the meantime, sit back and enjoy Seth's inspirational presentation at TED last year.

August 20, 2009

Funny how in an age of connectivity, collaboration and sharing, authors still feel the need to apply a Trademark to a term - Socialnomics - whose lifespan might be a matter of months. He also provides no credits, reference or sources....

Another "shock & awe" video to jolt Boomers out of their lethargy. Gen Y will outnumber Boomers in 2010?? Game's over? Or is it?

The accuracy of many of the statements is questionable as has been thoroughly explained by Robert Cole in his blog on Voodoo Economics here - do please read. It seems that in the rush to jump on the bandwagon, catch some celebrity glitter, or be first to publish, authors are in danger of jettisoning critical thinking. This won't help the cause of changing traditional mindsets and there's no need for it either. The pace and scale of change is great enough - there's no need to exaggerate. Perhaps Robert should have called his post Voodoo EGOnomics.....

July 07, 2009

Thanks to SwitchNewMedia I was able to avoid 8 hours of train travel yesterday and participate in Reboot Britain from the rural heart of the country.

Faced
with economic meltdown, dismally low levels of public trust in
political leadership, growing concerns about the ability of big
government to succeed let alone sustain itself, there's an urgent need
to "re-imagine, re-invest, and re-invigorate our economy and society."
These words of Diane Coyle, editor and facilitator, apply beyond the
shores of the little island that formed the focus of yesterday's
event...

To provoke debate, the organizers (NESTA) commissioned a series of essays
that are well worth reading. I also recommend you bookmark the site as
all the presentations will be available shortly and check out
#rebootbritain to sense the Twitter pulse.

While
the focus was on the public economy, there was plenty of interest to
the private sector and associations in all facets of life and business
in the UK and elsewhere.

Kudos to Stephen
Moore(@stevemoore4good), NESTA and the organizing team for initiating
the conversation - even though the format (mostly in the main lecture
hall) was surprisingly conventional with limited opportunities for
audience participation. Next time, a split screen would enable online
participants to see what the speaker was referring to and it would be
great if moderators could accept questions from tweeters/bloggers
regardless of their location......

It was a rich experience -
even from a distance and without the benefit of F2F buzz, but, despite
Howard Rheingold's insightful conclusion and optimistic wardrobe, the
title left me feeling very uneasy.

While eye and ear catching
in its modernity, the concept of ReBoot, is on reflection merely a 2.0
version of "kickstart." It implies an assumption that a traditional
economy, which has gone into nosedive, can be brought back to life with
a reset button and all will be well. Remember, it comes after the
messages: "Abort", "Retry", and "Fail"! But the intent of the
conference suggested that it isn't a reboot that's needed but an
entirely new operating system, based on a fundamentally different set
of operating assumptions and guiding principles - far greater even than
a switch from PC to Mac! I notice that some other bloggers came to
similar conclusions separately.

The term ReBoot also implies
that a new economy (networked, open, lightweight, environmentally
responsible, socially just, creative, agile and resilient...) will come
about as a result of external intervention when, in fact, it's already
emerging because the conditions are right.

Truth is, we're
being carried forward by a host of change forces that have generated
sufficient pent up energy to cause a tectonic shift in perception
regarding who we are as human beings on a finite planet and how we
should behave...

Talking about 2.0 versions of government,
marketing, journalism, healthcare, leadership, HR and manufacturing is
really healthy but will only move beyond talk to action when we can
sustain our attention spans long enough to understand these deeper
forces and harness their dynamics. It's ironic that here we are a
pivotal point in human history when we could become conscious of our
own evolution and the technology that binds also shatters our attention
into tiny fragments such that we seem to be viewing reality through a
kaleidescope rather than a microscope.

One agent of change never shy to use the term Paradigm appropriately
and forcefully is Don Tapscott (@dtapscott) who, like David Weinerger
and crew (Cluetrain authors), and Tim O' Reilly cut his intellectual
teeth on IT problems but has just gets wiser and more insightful with
age. For those of us whose time is limited between meetings, tweets,
emails, the following 2 minute video clip reminds us that it'll take more than a reBoot to move Britain forward.

Another agent of change, Paul Hawken, recently author of Blessed Unrest also
affirms that the ground is already shaking beneath the feet of
traditional institutions. Every time I watch the following clip from
the Bioneers conference a few years ago, I am reminded why we're living
in such an exciting time, so full of opportunity, so filled with
consequence.

June 22, 2009

References to the shift in power to the consumer are now commonplace
within the output of journalists, bloggers, analysts, researchers,
futurists. I also speak about it all the time. And, if there is one
dominant characteristic of web 2.0, it is that the fine line
distinguishing actors from audience, sellers from buyers, politicians
from voters is either blurring, disappearing or causing a complete role
reversal. Banyak Film’s excellent documentary Us is Now, investigates some but not all these issues.

We have barely begun to appreciate the magnitude of this revolution, let alone the implications. Is
transparency itself the most potent “agent of change?” Can transparency
provide the protection and assurance that civil society needs to
function effectively or will it unleash a wave of disillusion, a
breakdown in trust, an unwillingness to delegate authority, a
reluctance to step forward and exercise oth leadership and
responsibility?

In the UK, two events – one recent and the other on-going – illustrate
how difficult the next few years are going to be as we adjust to these
new, transparent realities.

MP’s Expenses
For the past 6 or more weeks, the UK media has more or less forgotten
about the financial meltdown and the steady march of the recession
deeper into all regions and sectors of the economy. It was as if the
news of an empire in such rapid and indisputable decline was too much
and the rabble needed to be entertained and their attention diverted.
Romans sent gladiators and those pesky Christians to their deaths in
the Colisseum and, just like in the “X factor” and “Britain’s Got
Talent”, empowered the masses with the ability to determine the hapless
fate of those in the ring by signing thumbs up or down ( now the rabble
simply presses digits on their phones). So in sophisticated Britain,
the so-called bastion of democracy and ordered, enlightened government,
we send our elected representatives into the lion’s den.

For those living outside the UK, here’s a quick snapshot of events. A
British reporter started to apply the Freedom of Information Act to
investigate whether our political masters (MP=member of Parliament)
were playing by the rules in claiming their living expenses. It turns
out that many were “on the take”. It also turns out that the there was
this “understanding” (nudge, nudge, wink, wink) that the parliamentary
authorities would turn a blind eye to all but the most excessive and
fraudulent of claims, as expenses were viewed in Westminster as a way
of compensating MPs who could not be awarded legitimate pay increases
for political i.e. optical reasons. No “leader” had wanted to be seen
to approve pay increases for MPs.

The Daily Telegraph found some sensational culprits and the story took
on all the force of a juggernaut with MPs being named and shamed on a
daily basis and generating revelations that ranged from bizarre to
distasteful and back to ludicrous.

And so it became necessary to publish every expense claim of every
parliamentarian for the past five years in order to assuage the
justifiable anger of the British public. Clearly this was an auditing
task too great for even the Daily Telegraph. So its competitor, The
Guardian, saw an immediate opportunity to steal the baton of “Guardian
of the Public Interest” by using web 2.0 technology and by
crowdsourcing i.e. inviting the public to help with the analysis of
nearly half a million documents online – see story here.

So what’s my concern? I’m all for public accountability and think it
makes absolute sense for politicians to have a clear set of hard and
fast rules regarding living expenses and be made to live by the rules.
But I’m not sure that we’re ready to devolve the responsibility for
fairness and wise judgement to a crowd – whose biases, motivations,
competencies remain completely unknown and where no safeguards for
slander and mischief have been set in place, let alone conceived. Even
prior to the Guardian’s intervention, the review by the media was
taking on the air of a witchhunt. Does crowdsourcing have the potential
to lead to an electronic form of mob lynching? Do we know what we’re
getting into here? Is it appropriate to be applying the brakes? Can we
ensure that transparency accords fairness.
Watching the Watchers – keeping an eye on the police
In response to the question that Plato asked a mere 2.5 thousand years
ago and poet Juvenal posed in Latin a few hundred years later - “who
guards the guardians?” or “who watches the watchers?” – a group calling
themselves FIT watchers has been formed in the UK in response to the
policy of police to film and photography anyone involved in a
demonstration in case they become trouble makers. Climate change
activists and other protestors are aware that that police have used
this “evidence” to detain persons before a protest - a form of
pre-emptive strike, I presume.

It is both ironic and highly disturbing to think that while we applaud
the courage of men and women in Tehran fighting for their democratic
rights and freedoms, individuals are been treated quite brutally by
British bobbies and arrested simply for taking photos of the police
taking photos. This article
and very disturbing video, published in the Guardian today, reports on
an incident in the UK recently, when protesters gathered to express
outrage at the expansion of a major coal producing plant – Kingsnorth.
In this case, the individuals weren’t arrested for protesting but
simply observing and recording police behavior and conformity with the
rules of engagement.

These two events are highly relevant to the topic “agents of change”.
They remind us that change is rarely easy, often demands courage,
results in bruises or worse, and can produce very contradictory and
ironic outcomes. In the same week, a daily newspaper had engaged
several thousand watchdogs from the public to scrutinize politician’s
expense claims, while three individuals (heretofore anonymous members
of the public) were arrested and roughed up by the police force that is
supposed to protect them, simply for ensuring the police played according to the rules agreed by society.

In this case, the video, was not "user" generated content but had been recorded by the police themselves and obtained later. You'll see from the story that, while the women had to spend several distressing days in prison, all charges were dropped and the case is now under investigation.

So when you are watching the terrible scenes from Iran and thinking how lucky you are to be a free citizen, remember how fragile that freedom really is.